


Red

by alivelesbian



Category: Orphan Black (TV)
Genre: F/F, Immediate aftermath of 3x10
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-12
Updated: 2016-04-12
Packaged: 2018-06-01 18:34:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,291
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6531367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alivelesbian/pseuds/alivelesbian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Distant, foggy visions overwhelmed her and all she could feel was Red. Red like the coat Cosima wore on their first date. Red like danger. Red like Cosima’s blood, more and more vibrant, persistent, the longer it took to find the cure. Red like her /own/ blood as she laid helplessly on the concrete floor."</p>
<p>Alternative title: Delphine is alive and it doesn't take Cosima long to find out what happened to her</p>
            </blockquote>





	Red

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this a while ago after rewatching the S3 finale but wasn't really planning on posting it until I received some encouragement, so here it is!

_“What will happen to her?”_

The gunshot rang out. Before she could even process what had happened, Delphine found herself tumbling uncontrollably towards the ground. Her warm skin contacted the icy concrete below, the only thing preventing her from falling straight through the earth in a disorientated daze.

Distant, foggy visions overwhelmed her and all she could feel was Red. Red like the coat Cosima wore on their first date. Red like danger. Red like Cosima’s blood, more and more vibrant, persistent, the longer it took to find the cure. Red like her _own_ blood as she laid helplessly on the concrete floor. Red that taints wounds and leads to death. Red, the colour of anger - she’s slipping away too soon, _too soon_ , she’s not ready to die, Cosima’s fate is still unknown, she never saved her sisters, she - she’ll never experience the day she can live without constantly seeing Red, feeling Red, holding the woman who was once Red’s choice of prey in her arms again.

Delphine leaned up against the car, hands desperately trying to block the flow of blood exiting the wound. She’s alone now, waiting in eerie silence, but for what? She never received an answer to her question and she no longer has any hope that she will. Perhaps she’s waiting for somebody to find her. Cosima? No, she’s fought to keep her away from danger and having her come here would potentially lead her straight to it. Scott? Delphine fumbles around with one hand for her phone, the other still pressed heavily on the wound. Dialling his number, the phone rings.

Once, patience. Twice, desperation. Three times, fear. The phone continues onto its fourth ring but is interrupted suddenly by a familiar, friendly voice.

“Scott.” She cuts in straight away, panic evident in her tone. This doesn’t go unrecognized.

“Delphine, is everything alright?” He whispers discreetly as to not distract everyone else away from Alison’s celebration. Delphine can hear the sound of laughter in the background although she’s unable to distinguish whose laugh belongs to who. By now, her mind has begun fading in and out of consciousness as she tries to concentrate through the pain and figure out what to say next.

“Scott, I,” she involuntarily gasps from a sharp flash of agony through her body. She knows she’s running out of time. She’ll have to act fast if she’s to stand any chance of surviving.

Luckily for her Scott is intelligent, seeming to catch on and state what Delphine was struggling to tell him.

“Somebody’s hurt you, haven’t they?”

Delphine neither confirms or denies because the answer is obvious anyway.

“I’m in the Dyad parking lot, I’ve just been shot. Get me an ambulance, quickly. And make sure Cosima doesn’t know about this.”

Mumbles can be heard on Scott’s end of the line and the laughter fades into silence. She can just about make out the voice of the person Scott seems to be talking to but her thoughts are becoming a jumbled mess and she doesn’t quite place the name that goes along with it until Scott almost hisses “Art”.

A few moments pass before Scott’s voice comes back on the line clearly.

“Art is on the way, alright? Just stay where you are, he’ll find you.”

“What about Cosima? She cannot-”

“I’m staying here with Cosima, but Delphine you really need to focus on yourself right now. She’s safe but you’re not, so just keep on the look-out for Art and I’ll take care of Cosima.”

Delphine thanks Scott and hangs up so he can return to the others without raising suspicion. Her hand is still pressed over the wound and she figures she needs to find a better way to cover it but she’s pretty sure that would go against Scott’s instructions of not moving and waiting for Art.

No more than 15 minutes must have passed before the distant sound of an engine fills Delphine’s ears. By this point she’s working too hard at fighting against her own consciousness, trying so hard not to give in to the wound or pass out from pain, that she doesn’t pay attention until car wheels enter her line of vision followed by a pair of legs. Snapping her head up from the area of concrete her eyes were fixated on, Delphine relaxes at the sight of Art. He appears to be alone.

Art interrupts as he notices Delphine open her mouth to speak. _She probably has just as many questions as I do_ , he thinks to himself grimly as he hurries over.

“An ambulance is on its way, Delphine. We need to get you to a hospital.” He sighs at the conflicted expression on her face and continues, “There will be plenty of time for questions later.”

The next half an hour or so is a blur. Delphine remains barley conscious enough for the arrival of the ambulance, let alone the ride to the hospital. She’s later informed that she passed out in the ambulance, not from the wound specifically but from complete exhaustion. She wakes up an undetermined amount of time after, soon recognizing her new surroundings. From her experience of being the doctor rather than the patient, there are three things she notices straight away: she is in a hospital ward, in a hospital bed, alone in the dark.

With determination Delphine adjusts herself into sitting position, pressing the button to her left that alerts the hospital staff of when their presence is needed. Within moments the door to the ward is not-so-gracefully swung open and two nurses hurry in, keen to do checks on Delphine’s state.

It is with irritation that Delphine allows herself to be examined. Once her patience has eventually boiled down to zero she demands to know where she can find Art.

“You can speak to him in a short while. First we have to make sure you’re well, we didn’t think you’d be conscious for a few more hours.”

Delphine sighs in defeat, resigning herself to the possibility that she could be very well be stuck helpless for ages. When was the last time she was able to rest for more than a few minutes at a time? In all honesty she knows that this downtime will be beneficial for her. She’ll get this shot wound healed up and head straight back to work, protecting Cosima and her sisters from afar exactly as she’d planned before. It’s no big deal. However, she can feel her anxiety bubbling away in the bottom of her stomach much like it’s been doing ever since taking over the role previously held by Rachel Duncan. She couldn’t have imagined how huge this whole conspiracy was gonna become when she first agreed to the job of monitoring Cosima, there are so many questions left to be answered and the uncertainty that the woman she loves will be safe in her absence. She shoves the thought into the back of her mind.

It turns out that “a short while” is actually much shorter than Delphine had been dreading. Within about 5 minutes of the nurses’ departure, Art make an appearance at the door.

“Alright for me to come in?” He asks, mostly for the sake of being polite than anything else. Delphine motions for him to enter. He pulls up a stool and takes a seat at the end of the bed.

“So…” he begins, attempting to gauge the mood of the woman in front of him, “how are you feeling?”

As much as Delphine understands that Art is probably in an uncomfortable position, torn between maintaining professionalism and showing genuine concern for someone close to Cosima ( _and by extension, Sarah?_ she wonders for a moment before dismissing the idea) she can’t help but scowl at the question. Someone had just tried to kill her after all.

“I’m alive, so there’s that.”

Art launches into business, questioning Delphine about the events leading up to the assassination attempt, filling her in about what she missed while unconscious and reassuring her that he is receiving frequent updates from Scott saying that Cosima is still none the wiser about what has happened.

During the discussion he can’t help but notice cracks in Delphine’s stoic facade, especially at any mention of Cosima. Her face is worn, eyes are dull and it wouldn’t be surprising if she hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep in weeks. In fact it’s a miracle that she’s survived this long from the severe stress she must be under alone. Still, Art understands the necessity of pushing your personal feelings aside in order to get the job done.

Just as Art is about to leave Delphine in peace, his phone buzzes to tell him that Scott is calling. Without thinking he answers the call and finds himself on the receiving end of a panicking Scott’s spluttering.

“Hey, calm down! What’s happening?”

On the other end, Scott takes a deep breath and tries to explain slower, “Cosima knows… and she’s on her way… I tried to stop her but she knows where you are and she just left.”

Art turns away from Delphine and sighs, trying to keep his composure calm so that Delphine doesn’t catch on.

“Damn, okay. Don’t suppose you can explain how…?”

“She just told me that she sensed something wasn’t right and then she _pressured_ me until I told her everything! I’m- I’m really sorry. How’s Delphine?”

Art glances back to the bed-bound lady to find that she is glaring at him with great suspicion.

“I’m with her at the moment. She’s, uh, doing well. I,” he takes another look at Delphine’s pissed off expression, “I think that she’d like to have a word with you.”

Art briskly passes the phone over to Delphine before Scott can protest. He observes in amazement as the woman before him - the injured, exhausted woman - berates Scott as if she wasn’t just shot at and almost left to die. As if this is just another day full of the usual complications at Dyad. Once done she hangs up and directs her attention to Art.

“Cosima’s on her way with Sarah, the rest are staying at Alison’s. Make sure you’re there to greet them when they arrive. Now _go_.”

Her voice is more strained than it was before, more urgency escaped in her tone. Art gave a final glance of concern before turning and exiting the ward.

Delphine continued to lay in bed, now alone and now in silence. She wished that it could stay this way for a lot longer but she was also fully aware that the world wouldn’t stop turning just for her to recover and have some time for herself. Cosima is still sick. Her sisters are still unprotected. Dyad is still out there, and now there’s the Castor clones and the military and the mess keeps getting bigger and there’s no way she can just stay here when there’s still _so much_ left that she has to _do_ and—

There’s a timid knock on the door and Delphine recognises who is on the other side from the familiar sound. It’s a sound she associates with excitement, the thrill of knowing who’s out there waiting for her to open up the door and break down the final barrier keeping them at physical distance. The sound that lets her know there’s a woman out there who wants to see her and spend time with her. A woman that cares. It’s not a sound she’s heard in such a long time and now it fills her with dread rather than happiness. Regardless, she gives the okay for Cosima to come in.

Cosima enters with Sarah following just behind her and audibly gasps at the sight of Delphine. Delphine pans between Cosima’s expression of shock and Sarah’s glare of anger and rolls her eyes.

“Is it possible for Cosima and I to have a conversation alone?”

She doesn’t know why she feels so defensive in that moment. Maybe it’s seeing Cosima so soon after making peace that she wasn’t going to for a long while, or maybe it’s accusation she can feel in Sarah’s eyes. Sarah turns to Cosima, puts her hand on her shoulder and quietly confirms that it’s okay to leave her on her own with Delphine, then goes to wait in the hallway outside with Art.

Cosima makes no attempt to move closer to Delphine from where she’s currently stood about halfway across the room. During the several moments of uncomfortable silence that passes between them, Delphine plots what she’s gonna say to the woman in front of her. She figures it’ll be best to repeat what she had already told Art. Even if she is just repeating what Art had told Scott who then in turn revealed to Cosima, at least it’s a starting point.

Delphine is just about to open her mouth to talk when Cosima takes a few steps forward, searches for a chair to pull closer to her and takes a seat next to Delphine about halfway down the bed. She rubs her eyes, closes them and composes herself.

They talk rigidly, careful not to make this more painful than it already is. Delphine is mindful of making sure Cosima knows that she can’t stay, that as soon as she recovers she’ll be leaving to secure a safe future for her and her sisters, just as she had told her before getting shot.

Their time is limited and Delphine is grateful they’re able to have it at all. They say their goodbyes, uncertain about when they’ll be able to see each other but with the knowledge that there _will_ be a next time, and that’s enough to fill them with hope despite the challenges that lay ahead.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you guys like vague endings whoops, I'm honestly not thinking about Delphine's first interaction with Cosima (or whether Delphine is even alive) in detail until S4 because I don't wanna be disappointed if it's nothing like I imagined so, take this as more of an immediate aftermath fic! I'm super excited for the new season but also I'm so unprepared!


End file.
